At last two days of Trave Art Festival we held exhibitions and workshops for
public in several places.
A big convention center in Trenthorst was a biggest place of the festival.
The German staff invited Japanese-food-service from Hamburg in the yard
of this center,and they set up outside cafe.
We enjoyed some Japanese first food " Yakisoba " " Harumaki(Chinese)"
and Sake or Japanese beer.

When I try to make up local events including food-court, the garbage is
alway a big problem.
In these days as everybody has a big interest for ecological issue we
try not to use one-way-plastic /paper cups or dishes, try to serve
bottle beer,not can.
However It's a long way from what is needed at this moment.....

On the contrary It likes like German people take perfect steps to
deal with this problem.
At the food court I saw the staff payed back money to customers
when they put back the bottles.( We had the same system in Japan
before.... why it's gone?)
In Germany they have to submit applications to the gaverment
to ask using one-way dishes/cups when they plan events.
But they say they hardly get the permition about it except
more than 10,000 people-large-scale event.

Look at the picture above.
This dish is made from cornstarch. Yes, it's eatable!
I've never seen same kind of things in my country.
I heard this eatable dishes are made at a company in Hamburg.

I'll ask to have some Japanese companies to make the same one soon !

(This article is a report on Trave Art Festival 2005
located in six villages along the Trave River near Hamberg,Germany
during July 23rd - August 7th.)

Trave Art Festival 2005 report vol. 12 "Dancing Felt Night"

Anke Meixner is not only a papermaker but also a feltmaker. As I also make felts,
we desided to make up a collaborative workshop together.
Anke suggested me to direct " Dancing Felt Party". It's a gathering to make a big
piece of felt with music.

TAF staff amazingly got a lot of supporters and donations : many volunteers,
foods and various materials. Among the materials there were a large amount of
sheep wool from a local farm.
We thought it's much enough to make something huge.

I washed much greasy sheep wool by myself for the first time in ages.
In fact,the wool was very high quality . However unfortunately we found
that the wool is good for spinning but not suitable for making felt....
So we desided to mix a little other suitable sheep wool which Anke had
brought from her home so as to make it possible .

Since I graduated from art college I've never carded such a lot of wool
by a small pair of hand-carder.... It made me remember joyful memories of
my college time..... Anke ,I and a graphic designer Franziska (she helped us!)
took turns carding ro making samples with chatting in the sunny garret-working room.

Anke has a special feeling on " fish " as a motive for her artwork.
At" Fishe project night ", Thomas Helbing told me that fish stands for Jesus Christ.
We Japanese artists didn't know that!
In Tibetan Buddism world we have a set of 8 religous-marks of good omen
called " Hachi Kissho". One of the marks is desirned a pair of fishes and
it means " friendship".
After I told this story to Anke , she drew a very lovely design of two fishes
connected like the mark of Yin-and -Yang.

We cut/put many pieces of wool woven things and colerful felt on the design
and then put a grasp of sheep wool little by little,line by line on it.

At last we cavered fish-shaped material with a large cotton cloth
and scatered hot- soapy-water.

The essencial three conditions of making felt is alkali,heat,and friction.
We can put the two conditions:alkali and heat with hot^soapy-water.
How to give friction?
Yes, we dance on it!

The musician Kyo and Yoshiharu and other lovely local musicains
kindly join this project to play dancing music.

All the participants and some villagers kept on dancing more than two hours
with drinking!

Finally our friendship came to a shape of connected two fishes.

(This article is a report on Trave Art Festival 2005
located in six villages along the Trave River near Hamberg,Germany
during July 23rd - August 7th.)

Alexander is a garden-creator. He is at home in Japanese traditional gardening,in fact sometime comes to Kyoto or my home town Kamakura to study.

He made up a very interesting workshop in Ute's huge meadow
with fine baboo sticks and metal wires.

Everyone can join baboo sticks together one by one ,day by day.
A few days later the joined sticks were becoming a tower or something like that...

I also tryed to do that some times.
One day when I tryed to put a stick to the top of the tower
I found it's too high for me,a short woman.

"Alexander, why don't you prepare a radder for paticipants?"
Ale-chan answered,
"If you need it, you bring it. Everything is up to you."

I suddenly woke up at that moment.

In my country, when we try to organize something, they think
the organizer should service EVERYTHING.
We are always demanded that we completely foresee the other people's
requests before they request. Yes, we have to make perfect preparations
anywhere,anytime in our society .
This tradition is good for us to make up a project or something
smoothly in short time under the limited conditions.

However, at the same time, this tradition takes away valuable oppotunities to study how to express ourselves, or to develop abilities to make decisions by oueselves, or to find out self-particularity. Actually almost all Japanese hardly ever understand " who I am " ... Me,neither,ha,ha.....

Until I heard Alexander's answer, I believed I'm not a tipical Japanese
or I'm rather good to make up my mind independently. In fact, when I was
teaching art at high school, I always used to say to my students
" Do it yourself." " Don't be afraid to do something new." or " Think it yourself"......
I'm ashamed.......

In this way, Alexander gave me a good oppotunity to think of " what is really free creation?".
I really enjoyed this bamboo project.

At night on July 30th, all the participants and some villagers made a
short delightful march. We walked down from Ute's house through
Thomas Helbing's garden to the river side each carrying a torch,
instrument or lovely red or blue plaster- fish made by Thomas
in our hand. Of course we sang our theme song " Trave " on the way.
( I'm a little afraid that we must have looked the members of a cult
or suchlike....ha,ha!)

This was a kind of artistic action created by Thomas.
He got an inspiration from Trave canueing and from that day he began to make
many big plaster-fishes with an iron stick .

Small fishes always swim together making a school. It's like a group,
which has an obvious perpose, trys to act as one to change something.....

At that night many red fishes jumped up on the river-shore and they seemed that
they desided to join forces in action on the ground. But some of them (blue ones)
wanted to go back into the water.....

I felt the fishes stand for ourselves. Nobody ordered us to get together here,
Nobody pushed us to do something. We just spontaneously came here with a same perpose
" making artistic connection " by our own will.....or under the control by rule
of universe...?

Thomas 's philosophy of this project changed my tipical image of today's
contemporary installative action. The one in Tokyo is often too difficult
or self-satisfactive withought any care for others.
But this project is filled with love and very easy to take part in,
and it definitely has simple and obvious beauty.

Unforgetable experience for me.

(This article is a report on Trave Art Festival 2005
located in six villages along the Trave River near Hamberg,Germany
during July 23rd - August 7th.)